The People You Meet (At the Farmer's Market)
by Sherlock River Hekate
Summary: Peter was dragged to a Farmer's market with Aunt May. There he meets someone he knows from the superheroing side of his life, and someone from the more normal side of his life.


It was a pleasant day, the sun was out but there was a gentle breeze and the forecast had promised no surprises in the weather. Peter and May Parker were walking down the street talking, casually making their way to the fortnightly farmer's market. May was keen to take a look at the fresh produce; she'd seen some recipes in a magazine that she wanted to try. Peter, on the other hand, was just happy to stretch his legs and glad his aunt May hadn't dragged him out of bed too early. This farmer's market was a bit of a walk, being in Manhattan rather than Queens (May said they had nicer vegetables), but Peter found himself recognising buildings.  
"Aunt May, have we been to this market before?" he asked.  
She looked over at him. "No, I don't think so. Why?"  
He shook his head. "Just seemed familiar, is all."  
"Maybe the school bus has come this way?" she suggested easily.  
"Maybe," Peter agreed, but he didn't think so. The familiarity of the perspective was wrong for it to have been the bus. He shrugged it off for the moment, it'll come back to him later and it wasn't making his spider sense tingle.

The market, set up along a few connecting streets, was busy but not overly crowded by New York standards. One street was filled with art, paintings, sculptures and other handmade creations. A different street had fresh produce and jams. Peter could only just see and smell a different part of the market that was selling hot food.  
May made a beeline for the fresh produce, grabbing Peter's hand and pulling him after her.

While May was enthralled by the selections, the teenager was getting bored. He'd never heard of half of the vegetables and had no idea what his aunt intended on doing with them.  
Peter looked around, trying to see if there was anything remotely more interesting than whole cauliflower and bunches of kale. As he glanced around, his eyes caught a flash of something familiar. He turned back to look properly and nodded, then stretched his sensitive hearing to pick out a voice he recognised.  
Yep, there is was!  
He turned back to his aunt.  
"Aunt May, I'm going over there," he pointed down the street. "Just saw a friend."  
"Okay, keep your phone on you," his aunt replied, relinquishing her grip on his wrist.  
Now that he was free of his aunt, Peter carefully made his way through the crowd and towards one particular stall.

"Emily," he smiled at the brunette. Then he stopped. He had thought she was taking a look at the stall, but she was actually behind the small table. "I didn't know you had a stall at the market."  
The young woman smiled at him.  
"It's not common knowledge amongst the team." She admitted. "But it's something to bring money in."  
Peter looked at her. "Don't you get paid, like the rest of the team?"  
She shook her head. "The rest of the team are either members of SHIELD, or consult for Stark Industries. The three of us are neither."  
Peter did some calculations, his eyes widening. "But that means none of you get money. And I've eaten all that food when I've been there!"  
Emily smiled kindly. "Relax Peter. Stephen gets paid by some of the people who visit for magical advice or ailments. And Wong teaches self defence classes once a month. And well, I grow and sell tea."  
The teenager pondered over that for a bit.  
"Wait, you grow the tea yourself? Where?"  
"In a little pocket dimension accessible through the 5th room in the basement."  
Peter wasn't surprised. There were a lot of rooms in the sanctum and the basement seemed to be full of the really bizarre things.  
"Speaking of the sanctum, isn't this a long way to come?" Peter asked.  
Emily blinked at him and frowned. "Peter, the sanctum is about two blocks that way." She pointed over her shoulder. "How bad are you at geography?!"  
Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "Yea, not that good. That explains why some of the buildings looked familiar. I've walked past them on the way to the sanctum."  
"Peter?" Emily asked after a moment. "I know you're not a child, but who are you here with?"  
"Oh, aunt May wanted to come down. She's over there somewhere." He waved a hand in the direction of the vegetable stalls.  
"Right," Emily commented. "Could you do me a favour?"  
"Sure!" was Peter's chirpy reply.  
"Man the stall for like five minutes. I really need to pee."  
Then Emily disappeared into the crowd.

Luckily for Peter, only a couple of people had stopped by the stall. None of them had asked question or bought anything.  
He could see Emily's dark hair weaving through the crowds and he was about to let out a sigh of relief. Then someone called his name.  
Peter looked in the direction of the sound, only to see Flash making his way toward the stall.  
"What are you doing here Penis?" Flash sneered. "Selling trinkets or some shit?"  
"I'm helping my cousin," Peter replied, quickly remembering the partial lie Emily had told Flash once. "And she's selling tea."  
Just then Emily reached them.  
"Thanks so much Peter," she smiled, then looked at the other boy.  
"Can I help you?"  
"I was just talking with Parker," Flash told her. Then he took another look at Emily. "You're that chick that pretended to be his cousin."  
Emily looked at Peter in confusion. Of course, Flash saw that and shouted in triumph.  
"I knew it! You're not related at all. She probably doesn't even know you, Penis."  
Emily narrowed her eyes then turned to Peter.  
"When did I ever meet this… person?"  
"You picked me up from school one day about a month back," Peter muttered.  
Emily's frown cleared.  
"Ah, right."  
She looked closely at Flash.  
"I guess you do look kinda vaguely familiar." She hummed.  
Before Flash could say anything else, a lady came up behind him.  
"Eugene! How many times have I told you not to wander off?"  
Flash turned and ducked his head slightly. "Sorry mother."  
"Now, who is this?" she addressed both Peter and Emily.  
"Just someone from school."  
His mother snorted.  
"May I help you ma'am?" Emily asked cheerfully. "I have organic, locally grown, fair trade teas."  
Flash's mother pursed her lips.  
"Do you have anything that would suit someone like me? I don't drink just plain black teas, too much caffeine."  
Emily nodded and grabbed a few boxes.  
"I get that. You want to take care of your body. Might I suggest a green tea then?"  
Peter stood to the side, in awe of how she was handling Flash's fussy mother.  
"I have a plain green tea and a green tea and rose mix. Or, if you're having friends around, there's one called Buddha's tears, the leaves unfurl gracefully in a cup or a clear teapot. It's looks quite amazing."  
Flash rolled his eyes, but Peter could see Mrs Thompson's eyes light up at the fancy tea she could show off to her friends.  
"Okay, I'll get a box of the Buddha's tears. I'm sure Karen will be amazed at them."  
Emily wrapped the box neatly, including serving instructions on a little card.  
"Green tea is best made with water at 176°F, so it doesn't go bitter." Emily informed her, handing over the tea and taking the money. "Thank you for your purchase."  
With that, both the Thompson's left, Flash sneering at Peter as he left.

"What a pleasant family," Emily muttered with a shake of her head.  
"You get used to it," Peter replied.  
That made Emily frown. Obviously that child's behaviour was often directed at Peter, then.  
"So, what teas DO you sell?" Peter changed the subject.  
Emily grinned.  
"I can't grow everything I want to sell, so I've had to limit myself. But I do have a couple of black teas, a couple of green teas, a chai, a matcha and a few blends."  
She pointed to the black teas.  
"I have a few of these. Mostly because people tend to go with what they know. This one is a French Earl Grey, similar to a normal Earl Grey but with hibiscus, sunflower and rose petals."  
She offered a small box to Peter to sniff, then moved on.  
"This is black tea with cinnamon and vanilla. And this is black tea and bergamot."  
"This one smells a bit like the French Earl Grey," Peter commented.  
Emily grinned. "Good job. Yes, because Earl Grey has bergamot too. It's just the treatment of the tea leaves that differs really."  
Picking up another tea, she started explaining again.  
"This is black tea and rose, with a little bit of currant and mango, while this other one is a mix of different black tea leaves. And this last one was a suggestion from Nat, it's a Russian style black tea. Very smoky flavour."  
Peter was having fun sniffing all the different teas, his sensitive sense of smell making it easy to pick out the different things Emily was describing to him.  
"So, what are these?" Peter pointed to another set of teas.  
"They're my blends. Two for sleep, as one contains St John's Wort. One for digestion and stomach upsets. And this one is a green tea with spices, liquorice mints, rose and jasmine."  
Peter made a face. "I don't like this one, too much mint."  
"Don't try the tummy tea either then," Emily laughed. "But I'll keep that in mind when you come over."  
Peter had wandered over to the other boxes, quickly replacing the matcha and green teas as they didn't have very strong smells. His eyes lit up when he sniffed the chai.  
"Hey, I know this smell!" he exclaimed. "This smells like the sanctum."  
"Correction, the sanctum smells like that," Emily said with a small smile. "That's chai. At least one of us will have a cup of it near us at any given time. To the point that there's a tea pot purely for chai. That's why you recognise it, the whole place smells like the spices."  
"Not a bad thing," Peter hummed.  
A moment later, aunt May appeared beside Peter.  
"Hey Petey. I've got the things I wanted."  
"Hey May. Good job at finding me amongst all the people." Peter smiled at her, but was eyeing the bag of vegetables suspiciously.  
"Who's your friend?" May asked, looking at Emily.  
"Oh right! Sorry, totally forgot you two haven't met. Aunt May, this is Emily. Emily, meet my aunt. Emily is a sorcerer. She lives at the sanctum with Doctor Strange. "  
The two ladies looked at each other before smiling.  
"It's nice to meet you," Emily said. "I've heard a lot of good things from Peter, and Ned."  
"Thank you. Sorry to say, Peter hasn't mentioned you."  
Emily shrugged. "It's probably 'cause of the whole magic thing."  
May looked closer at her.  
"I think I have seen you on the TV, with the rest of them," May nodded slowly.  
Emily smiled a little. "Stephen, oh Doctor Strange, Wong and I try to stay off the footage. The magic is a bit much for most people. Plus, I usually work on damage control."  
"Or baby sitting," Peter muttered grumpily.  
"What was that?" May asked sweetly.  
"Nothing, aunt May," Peter replied quickly.  
May and Emily shared a look. They both had heard what Peter had said.  
"Thank you," May told Emily.  
"Look at all the teas that Emily makes," Peter said, diverting their attention.  
"Peter, tea doesn't have nearly enough caffeine in it to keep me awake!" May laughed.  
"Actually the matcha probably would," Emily laughed as Peter muttered something about May needing to get some sleep too.  
"What does the matcha taste like? May asked curiously.  
"Little bit like green tea, but a sweeter after taste. A bit more milky too, though that could be because people add milk to matcha but not green tea."  
"You know what, I'll try some!" May decided.  
"Oh no, May!" Peter exclaimed.  
"I'll only use it in the mornings when I go to work. So I don't have to have coffee all the time." She told him.  
Emily wrapped took a box of matcha and found the instructions for it, handing them to Peter.  
"If you both decide you don't like it as a tea, it's really nice as an ice cream."  
Peter's eyes widened at the prospect of ice cream.  
Emily shook her head at his response.  
"I'll get Tony to make some for you anyway. Don't get into your aunt's stock."

They chatted for a little bit longer, before May reminded Peter that they should get home before lunch.  
"It was nice to meet you Emily," May told her as they were leaving.  
"You too, May," She replied. "You've done well with Peter."  
May's smile was a little shy. "Thank you for your help as well."  
"It's no problem." Emily turned to Peter.  
"I'm sure I'll see you during the week. Feel free to drop into the sanctum after school if you want. Stephen said he's happy to help with that biology assignment if you need it."  
Peter nodded. "Tell him thank you. Not everyone can do an assignment on human anatomy with a neurosurgeon as a reference."  
May looked between her nephew and the sorceress. She was glad he'd found people like Emily to help him, with the superheroing and with school.


End file.
